Utah group sues Alta to overturn snowboard ban

A group of four snowboarders has sued Utah’s Alta ski area to overturn the resort’s longstanding ban on snowboarding.

The Wasatch Equality group on Wednesday filed the 26-page lawsuit in Utah’s U.S. District Court, targeting both Alta and the Forest Service, arguing the prohibition of snowboarders is based on prejudice against the single-plankers and violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Of the three U.S. ski area that prohibit snowboards – Utah’s Deer Valley Resort, Vermont’s Mad River Glen and Alta – only Alta operated on federal land with a special use permit issued by the Forest Service.

“Discrimination without any rational basis perpetuates inequality by creating, fostering, and encouraging skier-versus-snowboarder attitudes that are hostile and divisive in a world where skiers and snowboarders, as a general matter, share the mountains, including those on all other public land, in harmony and without issue,” reads the complaint. “Perceptions and attitudes have changed concerning the sport of snowboarding, and the vast majority of the winter-sports community does not question that skiers and snowboarders can coexist and thrive together.”

On Sunday, Utah riders Rick Alden, Drew Hicken and Richard Varga joined other snowboarders in buying lift tickets for Alta. The group was stopped at the base as they tried to board the chairlift with snowboards and escorted off the snow.
The complaint says Alta’s longtime general manager Onno Wieringa told the group the snowboarding policy was “really just a business decision.”

Reads the complaint: “When Plaintiffs asked what harm would result from allowing snowboarding, Mr. Wieringa responded that Alta’s policies work for Alta because ‘we like it, our skiers like it, our owners like it, and the Forest Service says it’s OK.’”
The snowboarders – who are seeking a jury trail – argue the board ban has no rational basis and violates the 14th Amendment, which upholds equal protection of the laws and requires that all people be treated equally under the law. It was adopted in 1868 to uphold the rights of former slaves following the Civil War.

The lawsuit suggests that Alta’s nearly 30-year ban on snowboards encourages the same type of prejudice that shadowed former slaves following emancipation.

“Alta’s ownership and management implemented and maintained the anti-snowboarder policy and snowboarding ban as a result of underlying stereotypes, prejudices, animus, and irrational fears held by Alta’s ownership, management, and customers towards snowboarders and snowboarding culture.”